The assignment for chapter 13 is a case analysis. The assignment is worth 25 points. See the course schedule for the
due date.
Instructions – Content
1. Read the article below from Business Week on the Boston Duck Tours company.
2. Discuss the employment practices or policies at Boston Duck Tours that you think are motivating the employees.
However, you must go beyond simply describing those practices or policies. You must use the motivation theories
within the chapter to help explain “why” you believe the particular practices and policies would motivate the
employees. (HINT: the topics of merit pay, bonuses, commissions, stock options, piece-rate pay, profit sharing, etc.
discussed at the end of the chapter are NOT motivation theories).
• For instance, do you think letting the “conducktors” develop their own characters increases their motivation?
Which theory would help explain this? Is it expectancy theory, operant conditioning, Maslow’s hierarchy of
needs, etc.? Which elements of the theory or theories help explain why this practice would motivate the
employees?
• You can use more than one theory to explain why any particular employment practice or policy would be a
motivational tool
• DO NOT merely list the practices occurring at Boston Duck Tours and state that these would naturally
motivate someone.
• DO NOT discuss what would motivate the owner, Andrew Wilson
• Make sure that you explicitly make the connection between the theory and the practices and policies at
Boston Duck Tours. For instance, don’t merely state, “Theory A explains why employees are motivated at
Boston Duck Tours because employees are paid a good wage.” I would then ask why a good wage is
evidence of Theory A.
3. DO NOT summarize the article.
Instructions – Format
1. Failure to follow each of the format instructions will result in a reduction in the assignment grade, even if all
other aspects of the assignment are correct.
2. You must type the assignment using the following format and length requirements:
• Font: Times Roman.
• Font Size: 12 pt. DO NOT USE A SIZE LARGER THAN 12 PT.
• Margins: 1 inch top, bottom, left, and right.
• Spacing: Double
• Length: The analysis of the case should total a minimum of 3 pages.
• Cover page: please include a cover page
3. Do not add an extra line between paragraphs. Since the paper is double spaced, do not use a “block style”. The
block style format, where you do not indent your first line in a paragraph, is appropriate for a single spaced paper but
not a double-spaced paper. It is common for students to mistakenly use a block style format in the article review
paper, but this causes one of two problems: (1) an extra blank line is added to separate paragraphs which results in
wasted space, or (2) no extra line is added, but since the paper does not indent the first line, it is very difficult for me
to determine where one paragraph ends and another begins. You should simply indent the first line of each
paragraph and have no extra lines between paragraphs
Submitting the Assignment
Please submit the assignment as a Microsoft Word file attachment in the dropbox by selecting the “Dropbox” option from
the navigation menu along the top of the page. Once in the dropbox, select “Chapter 13 Case Analysis.” Attach your
Word file by selecting the “Add a File” button, browsing for your file which will be located on your computer, and then
select the “add”, “upload”, and ultimately the “submit” buttons.
Be sure to use the spell check and grammar check options on your word processing software. I want the assignments to
have no spelling errors or grammatical errors.
Good luck!
September 14, 1998
By Edith Hill Updike
A Nice Business Built On Being Nice
Generosity is the hallmark of thriving Boston Duck Tours
A lot of experts tell Andrew Wilson he doesn’t understand business: His prices are too low, his pay scale too high. But the
41-year-old founder of Boston Duck Tours, which offers land/water sightseeing trips in World War II-era amphibious
vehicles known as DUKWs, or ”Ducks,” has built a flourishing company in just four years by swimming against the
current. ”Other businesspeople don’t get it,” he says. ”Why argue with success?”
Why indeed? Buoyed by Boston’s recent tourism boom, Wilson has made his entertaining tours stand out — even in a
market so cutthroat that tour-ticket vendors have been known to fight over customers on Boston Common. His colorful
flock of 16 Ducks, bearing proud local names such as Kenmore Carla and Fenway Fanny, take visitors on a fun yet fact-
packed trip that cruises along the Charles River as well as around the city’s fabled sights.
The 80-minute excursion costs adults $ 20. Boston Duck Tours carried 300,000 passengers from April to October, 1997,
when the Small Business Administration named Wilson Massachusetts Entrepreneur of the Year. That traffic produced
revenues of $ 4.4 million — and profits of $ 900,000 — even though school groups get discounts and Wilson gives away
thousands of free tickets. Revenues are expected to pass $ 5 million in 1998. But what makes this former investment bank
vice-president a rare bird is the way he operates. Wilson won’t raise prices, even though he turned away 250,000
customers last year because of limited capacity. (The city gave him permits for 4 more Ducks this year, up from 12. He
has asked for 8 more.) ”It’d be greedy,” says Wilson, who relies on word-of-mouth and customer satisfaction to generate
business. ”People remember when you’ve gouged them.” The situation has made Boston Duck Tours a B-school case
study. At Harvard University, the professors thought he should expand outside Boston. But Wilson thinks the city’s calm
river and compact historical district are uniquely suited to the business.
PRACTICAL. Then there’s his attitude toward profits. Last year, he donated 10% of pretax profits, or about $ 90,000, to
community projects such as cleaning up the Charles. He also paid out about $ 1.1 million in bonuses — to everyone but
himself. His own salary is ”significantly under six figures,” he says. Managers get 1.5%-to-3% equity in the business after
five years, and after three months, all 50 or so employees enjoy benefits almost unknown in seasonal work: year-round
medical, dental, and life insurance, plus a 401(k). Such largesse is practical, Wilson argues, citing the success of
employee-oriented Southwest Airlines Co.: ”Ultimately, this business is about people. If they’re enthusiastic, it works.”
Enthusiasm is definitely on display aboard the Ducks. Each driver/guide ”conducktor” develops a theatrical identity,
costume, and spiel — Brad Rigby, for example, calls himself ”Ace Bandage” and dresses like a New England Patriots
football player. But besides encouraging wackiness — the crew carry kazoos to quack at passersby, who often reply in
kind — the company insists employees know what they’re talking about. Guides study with the local historical society, for
example.
And they’re well-paid. The highest-earning conducktor made more than $ 50,000 last year — for eight months’ work. Even
the part-time, mostly student, ticket-takers earn a $ 1-an-hour bonus on top of their $ 9-an-hour wages if they stay through
their contracts.
Wilson says the generosity reduces labor costs by cutting down on turnover. (All four of the original conducktors are still
aboard.) Recruiting is also easier. Brad Rigby came from a rival tour company that runs trolleys year-round but offers no
benefits. ”I’m not gonna leave here unless they make me,” he says.
Wilson hatched the idea for the company in 1992 when he saw tourist-bearing Ducks lumbering around Memphis. He had
recently bailed out of ”100-hour workweeks” as a vice-president for operations at investment-banking firm Boston Co.,
feeling, among other things, underpaid for his contributions. ”I just hit a wall one day,” recalls the Chicago native, who put
himself through college working nights as a deputy sheriff. He thought Ducks would do well in Boston, where visiting
friends loved to be taken out on the Charles in his sailboat.
PERMIT HELL. At the time, there were only two other Duck tours in the country: in Branson, Mo. — a waterfront tourist
destination, like Boston — and in the scenic Wisconsin Dells, where a returning serviceman launched the original Duck
tour right after World War II. Wilson started tracking down collectors of the vintage military vehicles and met Cambridge
(Mass.) funeral-home owner Manuel Rogers Jr., who loved the idea and took a $ 90,000 stake in the business. That kept
Wilson afloat until he could raise $ 1.2 million more from 35 limited partners rounded up by a small Boston investment
bank. (As general partner, Wilson owns about 25%.) Wilson bought four Ducks, available for as little as $ 500, and then
came the hard part — a two-year odyssey through ”100 halls of government” to get the 30 permits he needed to launch in
late summer ’94.
Then Boston Duck Tours hit rough water. Wilson, $ 270,000 in debt, lost $ 80,000 the first year. But his whole crew
pitched in to keep the startup going — painting, wiring, and laying the carpets in the office themselves. He spent nothing
on advertising, figuring, correctly, that he didn’t need it; local media gave lots of play to the diverting newcomers.
Revenues rose to $ 1.9 million in ’95, and the business has been making money ever since. ”The investors are very
pleased,” says Jeffrey S. McCormick of Saturn Asset Management, though he adds that Wilson’s ”passionate commitment”
to his city, employees, and investors creates a ”healthy tension over where to dedicate resources and, frankly, profits.”
These days, the Ducks are local icons, featured in ads for the Bank of Boston. Yet Wilson is thinking about moving on to
other things. With nearly 600,000 tourists a year coming to his door, he can see expanding his ”entertainment business” —
the business he says he ultimately is in — into profitable new directions involving tours and merchandise for tourists. On
the other hand, success has meant more seven-day weeks, and he hasn’t taken a vacation in 18 months. ”I’m at a crossroads
in my life,” he says. ”You need balance. You’ve got to have time to watch the clouds roll by.”
Although a number of buyers have made offers, he says, they tend to melt away when he insists they continue his profit
distribution and benefits. Now, he’s considering a sale to his staff through an employee stock-ownership program. ”I
believe in employee ownership,” he says. ”I’m not anticapitalism, but the human element isn’t taken into account enough.”
By making the most of his human assets, this engagingly odd duck has made his business swim.
